A newly-released report from the Reason Foundation, reinforces the need for state policymakers to keep the soon-to-be-released capital budget focused on repairing and building Ohio’s physical infrastructure. Something The Buckeye Institute recently called for in our own report, Principled Spending: Using Ohio’s Capital Budget to Benefit Ohioans. 

The Reason Foundation’s 23rd Annual Highway Report found that Ohio ranked 26^th in the nation in highway performance and cost-effectiveness. Not a great ranking for the country’s seventh largest state with the ninth largest highway system.

And when you get into the details, the rankings don’t get much better. Ohio ranked:

• 20^th in deficient bridges;
• 27^th in urban Interstate pavement condition;
• 23^rd in urbanized area congestion;
• 28^th in rural Interstate pavement condition; and
• 17^th in rural arterial pavement condition.

The good news is state policymakers have an opportunity to address this problem and can do so without having to spend vast amounts of additional dollars.

By re-focusing the portion of the capital budget typically spent on pork projects and instead spending it on repairing Ohio’s roads and bridges we can begin to reverse these lackluster rankings. That will put Ohio, and Ohioans, back in the fast lane. 

Greg R. Lawson is the research fellow at The Buckeye Institute.